Week 7 is a groovy bit of school vernacular.What it means for most teachers is that the holidays – and associated respite from hordes of teenagers – are only a month away.

What it means for me is that I’ve been on the steepest learning curve of my life for 50 days.Every single day I discover something new that it would have been nice to know a week earlier.Most days I discover something I was supposed to do yesterday.

Like today.Today I discovered I should have had at least 3 lessons observed by my department head and 1 lesson observed by a deputy principle by now.And it’s my job to invite them into the classroom, they don’t want to force themselves on me, and especially not unannounced.Their job is to make sure that I can do my job, not to stress me into the dirt.But a big long checklist to work through, handed to us on January 22nd would have been nice.

Today I said that out loud to “those above”.Now I have another job to do on top of everything else.I have to develop said checklist.

The good news is that means I’m “proactive” and “contributing”.When you stack them in on top of the words “physics major” it all adds up to… I’m gold.And that’s before I hand them a new work program sometime soon because the other physics teacher didn’t write one last year when the state authority published a new syllabus.Then I’ll be gold plated gold.

Now all I’ve got to do is strap on my safety harness and ride this rollercoaster all the way to retirement.